CONCERTS
Birmingham
In Brum the concert was BRILL! They were really really good. Everything was great. I wasn’t up front but me and G****** just danced all the way through it. Jacqui was sweet and I gave her a birthday card. (These were the tickets that Steve got for me on the guest list). She was sweet and gave me a kiss.
- Polaroid given to me of Steve & Jacqui May 1987 COPYRIGHT MICHELLE COLDWELL-SIMONS
Duran had about 32 screens on stage and when ‘The Chauffeur’ started they came down and the video was played on it. Also a sign came down saying ‘Hotel No Vacancy’. Simon looked great and everything sounded good.
Brighton
In Brighton Jim let us in early. We had been hanging around outside on scaffolding at the back of the Brighton Centre. We got in and took up the front row. Then everyone else got let in. It was a nightmare. People kept fainting behind me! Jo got in an argument and someone threw chewing gum at her. It got stuck in her hair and Rocks ended up bringing scissors on stage to cut it out!
A girl fainted right behind me and got pulled out. Her stiletto hit me on the back of the head as she got pulled out and I started crying. Steve was playing bongo’s at the front of the stage and stopped playing saying – ‘Get out, get out!’ but I stayed!
Nick looked like he was enjoying it, laughing a lot today! The concert was good – the crowd were shit!
Leicester Square
Leicester Square gig was one of the worst days of my life.
It was raining. We were on the guest list but weren’t allowed in. When we finally got let in Sam and Jenny got stuck when the doors shut so me being me waited for them but the rest of them ran to the front. When we finally got let in properly the rest let Sam in and me and Jenny got stuck in shitty positions.
We decided to move out so we could dance. Rae got lost. I couldn’t find her anywhere so I had to go home on my own as I had an exam in the morning. Left about midnight.
Today was SHIT!
NOTES ABOUT THIS ENTRY
I remember travelling up to Birmingham that day and being really excited. I hadn’t been there before and I was meeting up with a fan that I had met in Portsmouth whilst waiting for DRUM to come in. We were supposed to be staying at her house that night then travelling home in the morning. We met up with this girl from Birmingham and she was drunk! I was so anti-drink back then that I went to a phone box and called my mum! I told her there was no way I was staying at a drunk girls house and that after the concert I was getting the train back! I remember my dad picking me and my friend G up at around 2am in Euston really annoyed that I couldn’t have just stayed there and come home in the morning! My dad was a miserable so and so – but this was a first. He never came to pick me up from anything before, so he must have been a little worried about me. I should have been flattered!
So then I went off to Brighton the next day – which is where I actually live now! I had never been to Brighton before either – so another adventure! Not that I saw anything of Brighton you understand. There was scaffolding on the building at the back entrance and we just sat there all day, me swinging on them like they were the asymmetric bars in gymnastics! Jim Callaghan let us in early as he knew us. (If you watch Sing Blue Silver he is the guy that offers tickets to some girls backstage if they named a band member – you know the bit where the silly girl wants to ‘meet Sting OK?’ – well that’s Jim!)
When the rest of the fans got let in there was some unpleasant banter and that’s when Jo got the chewing gum in her hair! Thankfully Rocks was on hand to get it out. This was the first time I had experienced anyone fainting and when someone passed out just behind me it was scary! The ‘Stilly’ (what we called stiletto heels at the time) hitting my head when she got pulled out really hurt! I was secretly chuffed though that Steve wanted me to get out because I was hurt – even stopping playing his bongos to make sure I was OK! Bless him.
The Leicester Square gig was a late one. I think Nick had put us all on the guest list – must have been around 10-12 of us in all. All I remember about that gig was constantly watching the clock, thinking I’ve got an exam in the morning, can I do this gig and get good marks? Once again being nice didn’t get me anywhere and I ended up not being able to see much because I waited for Sam & Jen. Oh well. I still haven’t really learnt my lesson now to be honest! A word of advice – if you want to get to the front of gigs, being nice gets you at the back!!!!
(I have written that this gig was in Leicester Square – it wasn’t open air in the street it was in a venue – but I haven’t a clue which one it was. If you were with me, or you were there – can you tell me WHAT venue it was!? Thanks!)
The Duran Diaries 